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CONG-RESS AND THE PRESIDENT. 



The Political Problem of 18 66. 



SPEECH OF HON. ROSCOE CONKLING, 

Daliverei at Mechanics' Hall, Utica, September 13, 1866. 



Mr. CnAiRMAN AND Fellow-Citizens : 

In so far as this greeting implies personal regard for me. it only 
adds another to the many oucasioas scattered through twenty yeans, 
for which my gratitude is due to the peo]jlo of this city and county. 

In the changes and commotions of the past, your pleasure has cast 
me again and again into the public contests of tlic hour. The path 
lias not .'dways been strewn with flowers, the task has been not 
always easy; but in weariness, in perplexity, in trial, I have ever 
been so upborne by the cordiality and faith of those I represented, 
as to leave me no higher aspiration than to be more worthy of the 
confidence bestowed upon me. 

But this crowded assemblage, and the atmosphere which pervades 
this hall, means more than personal compliment to any man. The 
sentiment is here which sustained the country in the most fearful of 
human struggles; the sentiment which assembled the greatest and 
most heroic army that ever trod the field of battle, which put afloat 
the finest fighting navy that ever swept the sea, the same spirit 
which fought in the field, which toiled in the trench, which minis- 
tered in the hospitals, wliich plied the needle, wliich knelt in the 
closet, which wept at the grave, and which we trustingly hoped had 
subdued the last rebeUion on this continent, and rendered treason 
odious forever. It is a s[)irit which nothing can arouse except the 
love of country when tliat countr}'- is in danger. 

You believe your ccmntry is at stake now. So do I; and therefore 
we assemble under the institutions which our fathers made, and which 
give us as the remedy for wi-ongs in government, the silent, ])Oteut 
vote, and enjoin upon us the duty to use it wisely. 

'J'rouhles are round about us ; btit despite the complicated per- 
plexities and disorders in the land, despite the beti'ayals of men 
giddy with power and ambition, despite tlie patronage of the Gov- 
ernment, used to bribe the mercenary, and flatter the weak, despite 



.CtS 



all which makes you anxious now, the voice of the ballot-box will 
calm the troubled waves. 

Never can the destinies of the country be given more directly into 
the hands of the people than tliey are now. It is not the army or 
navy now, — they have done tlieir part. It is not Congress now. It 
is not the Govei'nment. It is not the President. 

The people are king, and the voice of the people is all-sufficienfe 
to solve every problem with which the country has to deal. Such 
is my faith, and I will try to justify it in the course of what I say. 
You wish me, no doubt, to begin with what is called reconstruction^ 

\ECONSTRUCTION — ITS EXAGGERATIONS. 

We are" tola this is the great question. It has become so, no 
doubt. It is nevertheless an artificially manufactured question. It 
is an exaggerated question — a question contrived by politicians, and 
it has become a mere distortion of reality. 

Its importance is not of the kind pretendpd. Its object is not 
what is pretended. Indeed, in and of itself; and for its own sake 
honestly and fliirly considered, it is, as to time, a very subordinate 
question, and there was no need of its monopolizing public atten- 
tion, much less of its agitating the country, and doing the harm it 
has been made to do. 

HASTY REPRESENTATION "^AS NOT NEEDED BY THE SOUTH. 

The commercial, the agricultural, the material, the social, even the 
political prosperity of the South, did not and does not depend at all 
upon whetlier members of Congress from the South commence 
speaking and voting twelve months sooner or twelve months later. 
If no object was aimed at but the general good of the country, and 
of the SoQth as a part of the country, nothing could be lost by leav- 
ing the Federal legislation and the General Government temporarily 
in charge of those who sealed their devotion to it by adhering to it, 
and upholding it while it was gasping for life. 

Left free to manage their own governments and their own affairs, 
with their people pardoned of all their sins, and their property left 
to them, and restored to them where it had been confiscated, hasty 
representation in Congress was the last thing the southern States 
needed for any honest purpose. It was the last thing which, left to 
themselves, they would have thought of demanding. After reject- 
ing every overture of amnesty and pardon, if they would but stop 
the war — after having kept up a savage effort to destroy the Gov- 
ernment until the utmost harm had been done, and their weapons 
were actually struck from their hands, the last thing to enter their 
minds, if properly treated, would have been the attempt instantly to 
assume control of that country which they had burdened with debt 
and tilled with mourning. 

Human audacity is unequal to such assumption ; and, besides, the 
true interests of the southern masses could not be promoted by it 
They needed everything but representation. 



THE SOUTH HAS BKEN INJUUEO HY ITS PRETENDED FRIENDS. 

So far from benefitting tlie Soutli, the whole effect has been per- 
nicious. The very idea of sway and control being resuinod by tlio 
same men who organized the rebellion, has conlbunded and disheart- 
ened the original Union men, and has led those who had made up 
their minds to become loval citizens, to put on once more the old 
airs and habits of disloyalty. Thus, in pla e of all chvsses at tho 
South turning tlicir thoughts to industry, all classes have been kept 
in agitation and excitement. And this is not all, nor the worst, la 
place of the Unionists of the South having the protection and moral 
support of the Government behind them, in nlace of their being recog- 
nized as the true representative men, they have been thrust back as 
hewers of wood and drawei"s of water, and compelled to submit to 
the domination of those who hunted them like wild beasts as long 
as the war continued. The greatest criminals, not only in treason 
but in cruelty, have been set in the fore-iVont of (avor; in place of a 
reign of peace, thei-e is a reign of terror, and in place of treason be- 
ing odious, it stalks high -headed in the public way. 

How true all this is, I will remind you presently more at large; 
just now, I am presenting the point that representation on the instant 
was not essential to the South, and that the question h-M not been 
made for the true interest of the South. Certainly the ])rominence 
given to the subject has not been for the interest of the North. 

nO\T THE KOlfril AND THE SOUTH HAVE BEEN INJUKED. 

For proof of this, look at the effect on Congress. See how time 
has been absorbed by this issue which should have been devoted to 
other things. We met in December with the rjiaterial interests of 
the country suffering from neglect During the war little had been 
done in the way of legislation, except to pass revenue and appropri- 
ation bills, and other war measures. The war was over, and our tax 
and tariff system, our currency, our finance?, our commercial rela- 
tions, everything which concerns the interest of the country and the 
welfare and pockets of the peojile, needed the best attention, and all 
the time and study Congress had to give. The session should have 
been em])hatically a business session, not for the benefit of any po- 
litical ))artv, certainly not for the especial benefit of those who have 
filled the land with graves and taxes, but for the benefit of tho 
whole country and the whole peoj)le. 

This was tlie expectation with which I went, and with which I be- 
lieve the other Union representatives went to Washington. ^Vl^en 
a committee was rajsed to examine and report all the facts resj)ccting 
the condition and situation of the South, we supposed it a business 
matter — that it was to be done in good faith, in good judgment, 
deliberately and in order, and that the subject was to come up at a 
pro))er time, in its pro])er turn. We did not realize that everything 
else was to l)e neglet;teil, that the business of this great nation was 
to stmd still, till rebel constituencies should be recognized, and that, 
too, against the imploring protest of Union men, white men, all over 



6 

the South, who had stood by the Government and fought for it 
and prayed for it, against the men who are now being "})unished " 
by not being allowed to take the head of the table and manage 
evei-y thing. 

But we soon found how ignorant we were. We found that a de- 
lirium tremens of excitement was spreading from the White House 
about the sufferings of the South — the political sufferings of the 
South — not of the Union men — the term South does not mean 
Union people, but those who carried on the rebellion. This excite- 
ment went over the country and came back to us ; the public mind 
and the public press was given up almost wholly to reconstruction, 
and the result was, of course, that reconstruction took possession of 
Congress. It became the constant source of solicitude, the constant 
topic of discussion, the constant occupation of time, which was 
sorely needed for other things. 

There were men from southern States sitting with the rest of us 
in the House, treated with civility, all their statements listened to 
respectfully, but their names were not called and they did not make 
speeches ; their doing so was postponed until we could be satisfied 
of the safety of admitting them, and indorsing the local authorities 
they represented, and this fact was paraded and perverted, and mag- 
nified, until it seemed as if many persons thought we were kee})ing 
the whole South cold and hungry, and laying waste its fields. Was 
I not right in saying the importance and exigencies of this question 
have been blown up into unreal dimensions? 

CRY OF ''punishment." 

Is it not amazing that such an upronr can be raised on such a 
pretext? I say pretext, because the allegation is that we are "pun- 
ishing" penitent and conquered men. We hear it said, ''they gave 
up, ihey cried enough, what do you want to punish them for after 
that?" It isn't true that they "gave up" — they did not give up, 
they were actually compelled to submit ; but suppose they did give 
up, could anything be more shameless than the pretense that we are 
" punishing " them ? Punishment ! — what is meant by punishment ? 
Three hundred thousand men sleep in bloody shrouds; the nation 
groans under a debt which only posterity can pay ; every luxury, 
every comfort, every necessary of life is burdened and embittered 
by taxation ; the world stands aghast at the atrocity of tlie crime 
which has been perpetrated against humanity itself; — and yet no- 
body is to blame. The Philadelphia convention says they acted 
from what they believed to be their duty. No man has been con- 
victed of treason. No man has been put on trial for treason. Old 
John Brown is the only man who ever expiated treason on an Amer- 
ican gibbet, and that was "treason against a sovereign State." No 
man but Jefferson Davis is in prison, and the papers say he is about 
to be set free. All the others have been discharged, including the 
pirate Semmes — he has been elected a judge in Alabama, but lie is 
undergoing the torture of being "unrepresented," and is now watch- 
ing the canvass in the North to see whether the election will put an 



end to his sufferings. The President inquires if this is the govern- 
ment of Wiushington. I ask you if it is the government of Wash- 
ington. Is it tlie government of men who wrote on the i'rontlet of 
their statutes, "the punishment for treason shall be death," and who 
did not write "the reward of treason shall be wholesale panh^n, and 
representation, beyond that enjoyed by loyal men, for traitors whose 
hands and faees are dripping with the blood of murder." 

JSIarvellous as all this seems, the fuet is upon us that a phan is 
afoot, with a hirge following in the country, to give over the Gov- 
ernment into the hands of its enemies. This brings us to the con- 
sideration from which the question of reconstruction derives its real, 
present importance. As the chief element in the election, it threat- 
ens us with dangers and evils which can be averted only by tliQ 
election of Union representatives in Congress in so many districts, 
that there will be a true majority over all other districts, North and 
South united. 

DANGER OF REVOLUTION. 

We hear intimations on every side of coming revolution. Such 
a thought is foresiiadowed in the address of the Philadelphia con- 
vention. It is audible in mutterings throughout the southern States. 
Mr. Montgomery Blair makes no secret of it. Garret Davis admit- 
ted it in the Senate. Secret indications point that way. There is 
something in it worth your heed ; but perhaps we do not all under- 
stand alike the meanings of these givings out. We are apt to think 
of "revolution" as if it presupposed popular tumult and commo- 
tion — as if it must be ushered in by military force. Nothing could 
"be farther from the truth. Let me suppose a case. Suppose in a 
given number of districts the election results in favor of the policy 
of Mr. Johnson, or of Jefferson Davis, because it is the same thing 
— it is the same policy which Davis in one of his messagCT attacked 
Mr. Lincoln for withholding. Suppose this "policy" should suc- 
ceed in a sufficient number of districts in the North, added to all the 
districts now unrepresented in the South, to make a majority of the 
whole, and any considerable loss to the Union party will do ihis. It 
might then be said that a majority of the country had declared ia 
favor of admitting southern members to the Senate and the House at 
once, without any preliminaries whatever. Upon this, on the as- 
sembling of the next Congress, supj^ose the excluded claimants of 
seats and their sympnthi/.ers in both Houses should be recognized by 
the President as the Congress. They elect presiding officers and he 
sends his message to them, the regular Congress being of course i'U ex- 
istence also. No violence has been em)>loyed, no blood has been 
shed, no tumult has happened, but a revolution is inaugurated which 
must end in war. You would then have two Governments, two 
Senates, two Ilouscfi of Rci)i-esentatives, and what could be done? 
The Su|)reme Court could not settle the matter, it would have no 
jurisdiction of the case; the ]ieople at the ballot-box could not 
settle it, because there is no form of appeal. It would be such a 
case as England would present with a legitimate king and a pre- 



8. 

tenrler, both claiming to be in nctnnl possession of the throne. War 
is the only tribunal which could decide it. 

'JMiis is one contingency to which men look if the election can bo 
carried — they think the logip of events points to it — thev even 
think force will be employed, if need be, to accomplish it. This was 
said as early as last winter bv the frequenters of the White House, 
and at the same time Andrew Johnson was said to be studying tho 
life of Cromwell. 

There are other results waiting on the election before ns, which 
commend it to the thoughtful attention of every one. If a man 
looks into his own pocket and looks nowhere else, and then reflects, 
he will see that he has no more important business now than to under- 
stand the pending issue, unless, like Mr. A. T. Stewart, he is build- 
ing a store in Georgia, or is in the southern trade, or is after a con- 
tract or an office, or revenge, or some other thing to be had at the 
ex])ense of his country, and then he may be wdling to burn tho 
house to roast his egg — to pull down the whole vine if he can only 
get a cluster. 

Good men and sincere men, however, differ about the questions 
before us, and with toleration, patience and candor on both sides, 
the way is to discuss it fairly, with an honest purpose to reach the 
truth. 

In this spirit, let us examine and compare our viewa The iflsu<> 
is between Congress and the President 

THE ISSUE STATED — WHAT CONGRESS SAYS 

Congress maintains that the President is not the law-makitig. 
power of the country — that he has only the power to ap])rove or 
veto bills, that two-tliirds of ench House, without his approval and 
notwithstanding his veto, are clothed with the full legislative power 
of the nation ; that it is the duty of the President to see that all 
laws are faithfully executed, and that except, as already stated, he 
has nothing to do with the composition of Congress, nor with the 
adoption or rejection of measures, except thnt he may give informa- 
tion, and may recommend matters to consideration. Congress main- 
tains further, that, subject to the limitations already stated, and to 
no others, it has the power to determine whether an alleged govern- 
ment of a State is a true constitutional government or not, and 
whether senators and representatives claiming seats in Congress, by 
virtue of such government, shall or shall not be admitted, and as 
incident to this power to prescribe conditions, compliance with which 
will remove objections which may be found to exist. 

Standing upon this ground. Congress has determined, after a 
careful examination of all the fticts, that representatives from the 
States whose authorities, and whose people, in great majorities, 
were lately in insurrection, ought not to be admitted instantly and 
without condition. This is what Congress has said ought not to be 
done, and it ha;^ also submitted to the people for their approval what 
it thought should be done. 

An amendment of the constitution is proposed for ratification bj 



tliG L<^<2;islatui-cs of the whole t]iirty-six States of tlic Unif)n, which 
amendment contains provisions believed to be well for all, unjnst to 
none, and calculated to sti'engthen the oountiy at home and abroad, 
to bind all parts of it together, to establish the common welfare, and 
guard against dangers, come from what quarter they may. 
. Tennessee, one of the lately insurgent States, having ratified and 
ado|)ted this amendment, her senators and re})rc.>entatives were at 
once admitted. The other States having been advised and i)ersuaded 
by the Presiilent, as Tennessee was, not tf> accept the amendment, 
have not yet done so, and the question is presented to the country — 
whether these guaranties shall be imbedded in the constitution, or 
shall be dispensed with altogether? 

'J'his is the position of Congress, as sustained by every northern 
man in both houses elected as a Union man, excepting Messrs. Cowan 
and Do(dittle, in the Senate. (Mr. Haymond, perhaps, shouM be ex- 
cej)ted also, though he voted for the amendment.) And the Union 
pnrty denies that Congress is in any manner responsible to the Pres- 
ident, or to any other earthly power except the Amorican people 
themselves. , 

"WHAT THE PRESIDENT SAYS. 

The position of tlie President is very different After ^fr. Lincoln's 
death, without consulting Congress, he proclaimed the State Govern- 
ments in the South extinct; he declared that all civil government in 
these Suites was obliterated ; he appointed governors for them him- 
self, and througli them he got up new iStatc governments in seven 
States, leaving the other four untouched. 

In erecting these goveriunents, he gave directions that certain 
things must be done, which he says he deemed essential, and thesd 
things having been done, he insists that the right of representation, 
without delay or condition, has attached, and that no power remains 
to Congress in the matter, except tlftit each Tlcuise may judge of the 
eleotion qualification and return of the particular individuals claim- 
ing seats. 

lie has pressed his policy upon Congress, and insisted upon its 
adoption, and Congress having actctl upon its own convicticMi of 
duty, he has entered into the elections, and is using the patronage 
of the Government, and stumping the country, to defeat those wha 
would not comply with his wishes. 

The merits of the issue are half eclipsed by the novelty of the 
spectacle. 

A man becomes President, under circumstances which certainly 
do not suggest the proju-iety of his arrogating to himself more than 
has been supposed to belong to the station, when held by those who 
received it by the choice of the people. Totally wanting in the sub- 
dued tone which -might be deemed becoming, he assumes preroga- 
tives which no other chief magistrate has ever broached ; he becomes 
dictatorial to the last degree; he obtrudes himself into matters with 
\vhi(;h, whether his view be right or wrong, he has no more c(^neern, 
than he has with the enactment of laws for the State of New York; 
and when other branches of the Government refuse to iliwi down 



10 

their convictions at his behest, and that, too, in matters with which 
he has nothing to do, he siezes the whole power of his place, and 
uses it to secure a personal triumj)h. 

He usurps the power of removing men from office to coerce them 
to surrender their convictions. 

He uses the power of appointment, not to provide faithful and 
com])etent public agents, but to bribe men to support him. Such 
an act in the old republics was a capital crime. 

He uses his position as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, 
to secure the attendance on his journey to the monument of a dead 
statesman, of the two heroes who will attract the largest multitudes; 
he gives them an "invitation" which, as Fairngut explained in 
New York, puts upon them a ''■duhj to perform^'' and thus Gi'ant and 
Farrngut are manoeuvered into the predicament of drawing the crowd, 
and then, standing by and giving apparent countenance to what the 
President says, and to wliat they are known to disapprove. He 
accepts from those who differ with him, hospitalities generously be- 
stowed on account of his official station, and on account of the pop- 
ular admiration felt for some of those who joui-ney with him, and 
then he avails himself of the occasion to electioneer and play the 
partizan and the demagogue. 

Gnawed by a hunger which nothing but the most fulsome and 
continual adulation can appease, giddy with the elevation to which 
assassination has raised him, bewildered by incense and ambition, 
his intemperate language, his ari-ogance, the estimate he puts upon 
the intelligence of the people and their sense of propriety, present a 
spectacle altogethci- out of place in a free conntiy. 

But let us lay aside all but the merits of the issue before us. 

POWER OF CONGRESS — THE UNION NOT DISSOLVED. 

The position of Congress is assailed on two grounds. It is alleged, 
first, that Congress had not the power to dispose oC the question as 
it did ; and, second, that it would have been wiser to admit rep- 
resentatives from the southern States at once. 

If both of these objections were sound, they would not justify the 
President's policy. But I deny them both, and maintain that Con- 
gress had ample power to do all it did, that Congress alone had the 
power, and that less could not have been insisted on without imper- 
iling the cause of the Union and trifling away the results of the war. 

Let us begin with the question, whether we had the right to say 
when and upon what terms communities lately in rebellion should 
send their representatives to participate in governing the countiy. 

On this head, I maintain the following propositions : 

First — The Union is not and never was dissolved. Ordinances of 
secession did not take the States which adojitcd them out of the 
Union. Eevolution did not dissolve the Union, because it tailed. 
"We resorted to war to keep the States in the Union, and we suc- 
ceeded. We carried on the wai\ too, to preserve the States, just as 
the much quoted resolutioii offered by Mr. Crittenden said, just as 



11 

the Union party says now. I voted for-.tiiat resolution, and I stand 
by it. 

Second — The right of representation presupposes not only the 
existence of a State, but also of a constitutional State government, 
republican in form. Witliont this there can be no representation. 
A single Congressional District, however faultless it may be, cannot 
be represented except through a State government. Tliere must be 
a Legislature competent to elect Senators, and to ])rovide for the 
election of representatives, and thei-e must be State oflicers compe- 
tent to e.Kecute the laws, otherwise there can be no representation in 
the Congress of the United States. 

TJdrd — The ccovernments which existed in the southern States 
before the rebellion began, were overturned. 

Not only the people in prevailing numbers, but the State author- 
ities, made war upon the United States, and one of the effects was 
to subvert for the time being, civil government in the rebellious 
States. Legislatures repealed the only laws under which elections 
could be held, they prostrated the whole machinery of civil govern- 
ment, they fmally'dissolved themselves, leaving no mode by which 
their successors could be brought into existence, and thus the form 
of government was obliterated and its substance absorbed by usurped 
power. 

Wiien peace came, it found no living governments in these recre- 
ant States, no authority which could be recognized, and by means of 
which rejM'esentation could be established. 

The representatives had withdrawn from Congress years before, 
and the laws under which they were elected hatl lapsed or been 
repealed, and without new laws for new elections, new representa- 
tives could not be brought in. In short, as Mr. Lincoln put it, the 
States were "out of then- proper, practical relations to the Union," 
and they could not get back without some action ou the part of the 
General Government. 

ANDKEW JOHNSOX, WITHIN- A YEAK, WAS MORE "RADICAL" THAN 

CONGRESS IS. 

Is this unsound doctrine? Is it radical, is it disunion? 
It is much milder doctrine than Andrew Johnson insisted upon 
■uniforndy up to his miraculous second birth. 

Let me remind you of some of his words and acts. 

GEN. SIIERM.VN OVERRULED. 

Mr, Lincoln was murdered on the 14th of April, 1865. On the 
18th of Ajiril, Gen. Sherman concluded and signed terms for the 
Burrender of the rebel army led by Joe Johnston. 

The third paragraph of these terms provided for "■the recognition 
hj tJit Executive of the United iStates oj the siveivl IState govervihcvls^ on 
their ojpcers and Let/ isia lures takivg the oath jJi'escri ltd ly the constitu- 
tion of the United States." 

Andrew Johnson had by this time been installed as President, 



12 

and this memorandnm waspf^nt to liirn. The act had been done by 
a soKlier and a patriot, who had, as but few men have had, the pub- 
lic contidence. It was tiie crowning act of one of the most majestic 
military movements in all history — the march from Atlanta to the 
sea. Johnston's army was the last one remaining in the field, and 
if the surrender stood, it closed the war, and the whole land yearned 
for peace. Nothing but the most dire necessity coidd induce any 
President to intei'pose and annul it; yet Andrew Johnson did inter- 
pf)se ; he over-ruled the arrangement : he re-oi)ened hostilities, and 
sent Grant virtually to supersede Sherman at the head of his army. 
Why? 

Let me read you one of the grounds upon wliich the President 
re-opened the war and over-rode the act of Shei'man in accepting 
Johnston's surrender. The thii'd reason is that the agreement "■un- 
dertook to re-(istahUsli the rthel State Governments that hud been over- 
thrown at the sacrifice of vuinij tlto^isand loyal lives and immense treas- 
ure." Sherman had provided only for Executive recognition of 
State Governments, a very small thing compared with allowing 
them to send delegations into Congress, but even this, on the 22d of 
April, 1865, met with Andrew Johnson's stern refusal, and Jo© 
Johnston was afterwards forced to surrender without these termt. 

MEMBERS OF LEGISLATURES TO BE ARRESTED. 

On the 21st of May, 1865, after the last rebel force had been dis- 
persed, and when the southern States were more law-abiding and 
less disloyal than they are to-day, Major General Canby telegraphed 
General Warren, commanc|ing in the south, as follows : 

,r " By direction of the President, you will not recognize any officer of the Confederatft 
or Slaic Governments, within the limits of your command, as authorized to exercise in any 
rmmier w\ilever, the fiindiom of their l,xie o'jices. You will prevent, by force, if neces- 
t2r;/, any attempt of any of the Legislatures of the States in insurrection to assemble for 
lef/islative purposes, an I will imorison any members, or other persons, who may attempt to ca> 
erdse these functions in opposition to your orders^ 

State governments must be very vicious and dangerous to make 
it right to prevent by force their members doing anything. To Jus- 
tify such measures, they should be almost as void as the New Or- 
leans Convention ; the necessity should be even greater than that of 
shooting negroes for saying their prayers at a camp meeting. 

THE SDUTHERN STATES " DEPRIVED OF ALL CIVIL GOVERXMENT." 

On the 29th of May, 1865, the President commenced the business 
of making States. On that day he appointed, by proclamation in 
writing, a Governor for North Carolina, and between then and the 
14th of July following, he appointed in like manner Governors for 
six other States. In every one of these proclamations he thus de- 
clares : ^^ Whcrr-as, the rrhcllinn * * * * has in iU> revolutionary 
prorp-ess^ deprived tlie people of tlie State of Nortli Carolina (or naming 
the other State, as the case might be.) of (dl civil government : and 
whereas, it becomes necessary and j^i'oper to carry oat and enforce the ob- 



n 

lifjatfons of (he United Stales to the people of North dirolina, in securing 
them ill. the eiij"i/niciit of a repuh/icanjbnu of//oreriimeut,'^ etc. 

On the 8d ol'Uctobor, af'terwunls, lie (lechired in a conversation with 
Col. Stearns, wliich was written out at the time and certilicd by ^[r. 
Johnson himself, that "'the /Stale inslitiitioiis are prostrated^ laid out on 
the ;/round." 

This, bear in mind, was only two months before Congress met, 
and he said the State institutions were then prostrate. 

This was on tlie od of October. Down to that time the tracks of 
the President upon this question ai'e plain to be seen, and they all 
point the same way. But here we begin to lose the trail. Congress 
was about to meet, and taking what the President had said as true, 
it made the whole question i'rom the beginning one lor legislative 
treatment. 

Had the President accepted the plain right of the matter, and co- 
ojieratdl with Congi-ess, all would have been well, lie had repeat- 
edly admitted that his action was oidy "an experiment," this was 
his lani2;na«j;e, to last only till Conirrcss met. I will show you in a 
moment that he declared deliberately and repeatedly, and as late as 
September 12, ISfio, that the steps he was taking, and the govern- 
ments he was setting up, would be ^^ subject to the decision of Con- 
gress. 

As an honest magistrate, knowing anything of the genius of the 
Government, he could take no other gi-ound. lie knew that his acts 
required the sanction of Congress to clothe them w'ith even the 
forms of law. 

ILLEGALITY OF THE PKESIDKNTS "GOVERNORS." 

Look for a moment at what he had done. 

AVithout any law to authorize it, and without the advice or con- 
sent of the Senate he had appointed civilians to rule over States as 
Provisional Governons. I would like to see some law for that. 

In the case of California, the Suj)reme Court decided that the 
President, as comma ndcr-in -chief could assign a mililurg officer to act 
a.'i military Coveruor of a given district; and following that prece- 
dent, Mr. Lincoln had detailed several military Governors. I3ut> 
mark the dilference between the two cases. 

A military officer holds his commission from the President and 
Senate by the terms of the constitution ; he is regularly in oflice, 
and, in time of war, the Pi'csident, as his commanding olTieer, assigns 
him to a particular dut}', namely, to the duty of su])erinten<ling a 
certain district as military Governor. That is one thing, and is all 
competent and regular, as the Couit held. But Mr. Johnson took 
citizens who held no uiilitary or other commission, and of his own 
head, with<)Ut consulting the Senate, a})j)ointing them to an oflice 
\inknown to our laws, and repugnant to our system of government, 
ami he fixe<l and paid them their salaries. Provisional Governor of 
a Stale ! What clause ol' the constitution, what Jiage of the statute, 
what tradition of the Kepublie speaks of that? 

Thcro is a clause of the constitution which frive^ the President 



14 

the power of appointment, but it confines the power to offices created 
by law, and requires the concurrence of the Senate, unless Congress 
dispenses with that concurrence. 

There is a statute which declares that no man shall be appointed 
to any place under the United States, unless that place has been 
previously created by law. There is another statute wliich declares 
that no money shall be paid out of the treasuty, as salary or other- 
wise, except in pursuance of express law. There is another statute 
which declares that no man shall enter upon the duties of any othce, 
without first taking and subscribing a certain oath. 

All these statutes, and this express provision of the constitution, 
were whistled down the wind in the very first step of "my policy," 
and already the court set up in North Carolina has decided that the 
whole proceeding was "illegal and despotic." 

But this is not all Having created these "satraps," that is a 
word the President patronizes now, he sends forth his ipse dixit by 
telegraph, dictating to States what they shall and what they shall 
not do, as conditions of their being allowed to resume their places 
in the Union ! Where, in his constitutional researches does Mr. 
Johnson find the power to do that? 

General Dix said in the speech he read to the Philadelphia Con- 
vention the other day that it was done " not in pursuance of any 
constitutional provision;'' that was his very language. This frank 
admission looks as queer in the General's speech as the fly in amber, 
or the jewel in the toad's head, but there it is, and it is true, too. 

But further still. After these "Sovereign States" had elected 
Governors of their own, \^^hich elections Mr. Johnson now passion- 
ately insists were in all respects valid, he refused to allow those 
Governors to act, or even to be inaugurated, till it suited his pleas- 
ure to permit it to be done. Where, if these States are entitled to all 
the rights he now says they are, did he get the right to do that? 

Every one of these acts,' as far as they could be sanctioned at all, 
required the sanction of the law-making power of the nation. 

PROCEEDINGS TO RECOXSTRUCT ON THE PART OF THE STATES 
ALSO ILLEGAL. 

But let US lay all this aside ; let us admit for a moment that the 
President is the proper source of all this power; let us suppose that 
the power was his, and that he exercised it properly, the next ques- 
tion is, what the States did on their part towards setting up gov- 
ernments. 

We have the President's authority and the admission of all his 
spokesmen, in this State, at least, tiiat it was necessary, after the war 
ended, to create new State Governments in the recreant States, be- 
fore these States could be represented. 

If then. Constitutional Governments were not in fact organized 
and mnintained, it follows, of course, that the right of representation 
did not accrue. Let us see. 

I aflarm, sneaking generally of the rebellious States, omitting 



16 

Tennessee, that the business of erecting governments was littlo hotter 
than a sham. 

The |)rocecdings were irregular. They were conducted by rebelst 
Rebels were chosen to theollieos; the constitutions were never sub- 
mitted to the people, nor to any portion of the people, and the wholo 
thing was a hollow compliance, under duress, with certain require- 
ments of the President's, the chief object being to get into Congress. 
; This is general assertion; let me take up some of these States, 
one by one, and see '. C the facts proved by the record bear me out. 

I will begin with Vinjinia, where it was not deemed necessary even 
to appoint a Provisional Governor. The history of the present 
State Government of Virginia, the only government that exists there, 
is this: 

The constitution was originated by a convention at Alexandria, 
April 7, 1864 By express provision of the constitution, the Legis- 
lature is to consist of a Senate and a House of Delegates. The 
House is to consist of not less than eighty, nor more than one hun- 
dred and four members; and the Senate is to consist of not more 
than one-third, nor less than one-fourth of the House. A majority 
of each body is necessary to do business. 

Tliis Legislature, thus created, has held three sessions. At the 
first and second session, the House was composed of fourteen mem- 
bers, less than one-fifth of the smallest legal number, and the Senate 
consisted of six members, less than one-third the smallest legal num- 
ber. Yet these were all who were or could be elected. 

The constitution disqualified rebels from voting or holding office, 
but this sliver of a Legislature overrode the constitution, and brought 
in the rebels. In this way, the present government came up; thus 
watered, it "growed" like Topsy. As soon as it was big enough, a 
Governor was elected, only eight counties voting. The next thing 
was to elect Senators and Representatives. One of the Senator.s, a 
loyal man, is opposci.l to this day to the State being allowed repre- 
sentation, and two of the l-i3i)resentatives elected were members of 
the convention which passed the ordinance of secession. 

Go to the next State. 

In Nort/L Girolinaa convention was held, which without submitting 
any constitution to the people, without any Legislature to pass law.s, 
proceeded to create Congressional Districts, and to provide for elect- 
ing members of Cjngress. This convention demanded the repeal of 
the test oath, and prepared to assume the fullest and most immediate 
rights and privileges. 

Thomas C. Fuller, a member of the rebel Congress, Josiah Turner, 
a Colonel in the rebel army, and Bedford Brown, a member of the 
convention which passed the ordinance of secession, were elected 
Representatives in Congress. William A. Graham, Senator in the 
rebel Congress, and John Pool, Senator in the rebel Legislature of 
North Carolina, were elected United States Senators. 

In Mississippi, a convention was held, but no constitution sub- 
mitted to the p3ople. The anti-slavery amenlment was rejected. 
The rebel General IIum])hreys was elected Governor. He was 
elected so quick that the President hadn't had time^o pardon him. 



\ 
16 

Mr. Seward, at first telegrnplied Sharkey, Provisional Governor, not 
to allow Humphreys to talvC pusession, but presently he was pardon- 
ed, and installed. 

Among the Representatives eleeted were. Colonels lleynolds and 
Pinston, Coh)neis in the rebel army, and Mr. Harrison, member of 
the rebel Congress. Alcorn, one of the United States Senators 
eleeted, was in tlie rebel Mississijipi militia. 

In Genrf/ia, the first thing ap])earing on the record, is a telegraph 
from the Seeretaiy of State, at Wasliington, to Johnson, the Pi'ovi- 
sional Governor. A convention had been got together to mai<e a 
State government, and the members were all unpardoned rebels. 
The telegraph is in these woi'ds, ^'■Scnd hil/ier tlie list of members elecU'd 
io Llie ajiiuenlion in order thai pardons vllhj he issued. The amnesty 
oath may be taken by tlie members.^' 

This convention aj^pointed committees to obtain the release and 
pardon of Jefferson Davis, Stephens, and others named, and " all other 
prisoners." Cook and Woffoi'd, rebel Generals, were elected Repre- 
sentatives, and Alexander 11. Stephens, and 11. V. Johnson, Senators, 
Stephens was not only Vice-President ofrebeldom, but ainemberof 
the convention which framed the constitution of the Confederate 
States. II. V. Johnson was Senator in both of the rebel Cougresses. 

In Sonth Carolina, the convention made a constitution, but did not 
submit it to the people. It gave the right to vote to all rebels, pro- 
vided they were white, or seven-eights white. They simply re})ealed 
the ordinance of secession without declaring it a void act, and re- 
fused to repudiate the rebel debt. Provisional Governor Perry, con- 
sidered the convention "a revolutionary body," and dissolved it. 

The Senators eleeted were Perry, a rebel Judge, and Manning, a 
volunteer aid to Beauregard, at Fort Sumpter and Bull Run. 

Three of the Representatives, were Kennedy, a rebel Colonel, 
!McGowan, a Brigadier in the rebel army, and Farrow, a member of 
the rebel Congress, 

The doings in the remaining States were of similar character. In 
no State but Tennessee, was any vote of the peo])le taken, ratifying 
the constitution, and every election of Senators and Representatives 
took place before the President j)roclaimed peace, or the rebellion at 
an end in a single State. 

In addition to this, slavery was declared to have been ^^ destroyed by 
militar powey" in every State but North Carolina, the secretly avow- 
ed object being to leave matters in such wise that hereafter they 
could claim compensation for their slaves. 

Don't forget just here that Andrew Johnson did not proclaim the 
rebellion ended in a single State till April 2, 18(30, and in Texas, not 
till August 20, 186(1 

Such is in part the record upon which must rest the claims of im- 
mediate representation. Is it a safe and satisfactory record? lam 
now on tlie question of the power to withhold representation till se- 
curity is given. Whether it was wise to exercise that power, I will 
come to in a niomeiit. 



17 

IS THE PRESIDENT TO JUDGE, OR IS CONGRESS? 

But before leaving the question of the power to witlihold recog- 
nition from the so-called governments, let me inquire who is to be 
the judge whether they are valid constitutional governments or not 

Is the President to decide that question, or is Congress ? 

Without stopping to argue this point, what do the authorities say ? 

Abraham Lincoln says in his proclamation of amnesty, dated De- 
cember 8th, 18G3, " whether members sent to Congress, from any 
State, shall be admitted to seats constitutionally, rests exclusively 
with the respective Uouses, and not to any extent ivith the Executive." 

A year later, in his message of December, 1864, Mr. Lincoln, in 
speaking of restoration, uses this emphatic language : " Some cer- 
tain, and other possible questions are, and would be beyond the Ex- 
ecutive -power to adjust, as for instance the admission of members into 
Congress. 

This was the modest estimate which Abraham Lincoln placed up- 
on what he might do, and yet he knew that the American people 
confided more in him than in any man since Washington. 

Let us see what the Senate thought on this point, and the Judi- 
ciary Committee of the Senate, and Eeverdy Johnson, whose great 
eminence as a lawyer gives his opinions weight everywhere, and 
whose politics make him authority among the disciples of the Presi- 
dent. In February, 1865, Senators from Louisiana were ap])lyino- 
for admission, and the matter was made the subject of an elaborate 
report from the Judiciary Committee, concurred in b}^ Mr. Reverdy 
Johnson and Senator Hendricks, who was one of the ablest men at 
the Philadelphia Convention, and adopted by the Senate, I think, 
without a dissenting voice. 

Here is what they say : " The persons in possession of the local 
authorities of Louisiana having rebelled against the authority of the 
United States, and her inhabitants having been declared to be in a 
state of insurrection in pursuance of a law passed by the two Houses 
of Congress, your Committee deem it improper for this bodj'- to ad- 
mit to seats Senators from Louisiana, till by some joint action of both 
Souses there shall be some recognition of an existing State government act- 
ing in harmony with the Government of the United States, and recognizing 
its authority.^'' 

These citations show what was the opinion of two of three branches 
of the Government before Andrew Johnson took the reins, the Ex- 
ecutive and Legislative branches ; let me show you now the opinion 
of the only remaining branch of the Government, the Judicial branch. 

In the case of Luther vs. Bordon which grew out of the "Dorr 
rebellion," the question was as to the validity and constitutionality 
of a State government, and the Supreme Court of the United States 
in deciding it, locates in Congress the power to judge whether a State 
government shall be recognized or not. 

Chief Justice Taney gave the opinion of the Court, and here is 
what he says: ^' Under this article of the constitution it rests with Con- 
gress to decide ivhat government is the established one in a State. For as 
the United States guaranty to each State a Bepublican government, Con- 
2 



18 

ffress must necessarily decide what government is esfahJished t'n a Slate, 
be/ore it can determine wliether it is Bejmhlicon or not. And wlien the 
Senators and RepreserUatives of a State are admitted into the Councils of 
the Union.! the authoritj/ of the Governme7it imder which, tliey are ap- 
pointed, as well as its Repiihlicayi character, is recognizidhy the proper 
constitutional authority. And its decinon is hinding on every other de- 
pariviientof the Oovernment. * * * Undoubtedly a miiitary gov- 
ernment established as the permanent government of a Slate, icoidd vot 
he a Republican governmerd and it would be the duty of Congress to over- 
ilirow it.'^ 

Upon all these authorities what had the President to do with the 
question, whether Congress should admit within its own walls l-iej)re- 
sentatives from this State or that? What right had he to thrust him- 
self into such a question, any more than Congress would have to in- 
sist that he should take men from certain States into his Cabinet? 

Did the President honestly believe that he had any thing to do 
with it? Does he honestly believe now that he is acting uprightly 
in making war upon Congi-ess by such means as he employs? 

Let his own record say whether he is honest in pretending to be- 
lieve that this question belongs to the President and not to Congress. 

On the 2-ith of July, 1865, he telegraphed Sharkey, his Pi-ovisional 
Governor in Mississippi, ^' the government of die State will be provi- 
sional ordy until the civil authorities shall be restored with the approval 
of Congress. Meantime military authority cannot be withdi-awn." 

On the 12th of September, 18H5, he wi'ites Marvin, Provisional 
Governor of Florida, " U must liowever, be distinctly v.nderstooil that 
the restoration to tvhicli your proclamation refers, will be subject to tJie 
decision of Congress.'^ 

WHAT SHOULD COXGRESS HAVE DONE. 

You will all admit that the power of Congress in the matter ia 
reasonably clear, but some of you may ask, could not all these 
irregularities have been passed over, could not all these nidl- 
ities have been vitalized in some way, so as to get at the question 
whether representation should be at once allowed to the southern 
people? 

Lotus admit this — let us brush away everything and come right 
to the question, whether, without guarantees of any sort, it woukl 
be safe to open the doors of Congress to claimants from the late!/ 
rebellious States. 

To know how this is, we must know the fiicts. 

When Congress met we were all in the dark. The President had 
declared his policy an experiment : he had said that when Congress 
met, his responsibility would end and ours would begin. 

The first thing to do, therefore, we thought, was to make a full 
examination of the \Ndiole case. 

The only way for a legislative body to do this, was to appoint a 
committee to collect the evidence. 



19 

" RECOXSTRUCTION COMMITTEE." 

At a cancTis of tlie Union members, held two days before the 
session opened, this was })roi)Osed. 

It was proposed by a caueus committee, wliich had no member 
from this State, except Mr, Ilcnry J. Raymond. Some thought a 
email committee could hunt uj) the facts and do all that was neces- 
sary, but Mr. Raymond })roposed to make a lai-ge committee, a com- 
mittee of fifteen, and on his motion in the caucus committee, this was 
done, and they brought in and recommended us to pass the following 
resolution : 

"Rosolvad, That a joint committee of fifteen members shall be appointed, nine of whom 
ehall bo members of the House, and six members ot the Senate, who shall inquire into 
the c.'ndition of the States wliich iormed the so-called Confederate Slates of America, 
and report whether ihcy, or any of ihcm, are entitled to be represented m either Iloiise of 
Conqrcss ; with leave to report at anv time, by bill or otherwise; and iin'il such report 
shall have been mad" and jinally acted on by Concfrcss, no member shall be received into 
eilhei- House from any of /Ae sail so called Confederate States ; and alt papers relat'ng to 
tice representation of said States shall be refer red to the said committee^ without debate." 

The resolution was given to the press that same night, and on 
Monday morning, when Congress opened. Mr. James Brooks at- 
tacked it in an elaborate speech. He pointed out the objections, and 
made the criticisms wliich have since been made, so that nobody 
voted in ignorance or thoughtk^ssness of them; but the whole Union 
party, and no one more zealously than Mr. Raymond himself, sus- 
tained tlie resolution. 

AVho supposed, that in following such a lead, we were being so 
radical? Yet the resolution on its face refutes the whole policy of 
the President. 

The committee was appointed, and with the exception of one 
member, it consisted of tried and able men, and for that exception, 
l;eing myself, the Union Re[)resentatives from this State are to 
blame ior allowing their kindness to lead them to so poor a selec- 
tion — the person they selected was not to blame, as he had nothing 
to do with it 

Before speaking of what this committee did, let me ask you what 
motive it had to do wrong. It has been abused by every man who 
opposed the war, and by every j)ress which did the same thing 
Isorth and South ; but what motive, I ask, had the committee, or 
Lad Congress, to do wrong? Was tliere not every motive of selfish- 
ness as well as of duty, to do tiie best tiling fov the nation ? 

Every one knew that the action we should take, would exert a 
lasting influence upon the politics of the country; that it woulcj 
largely affect the fate of parties and individuals. Suppose, there- 
fore, we had looked at it with only the nari'ow minds, and sordid 
liearts of politicians, would there not have been every inducement to 
BO act as to commend ourselves to favor by studying the best interest 
of the Cf)untry ? 

Think of this, my friends, before you take it for granted that such 
a body of men as the Union majority in the two Houses of Congress, 
acted like fools or knaves, after devoting themselves to this ques- 
tion for eight months, and all uniting, as they did, in the same con' 



20 

elusion, witli the exception of only three men — Messrs. Doolittle, 
Cowan, and Raymond. 

It is complained that we deliberated too long, that we were not 
hasty enough in coming to a conclusion. A strange accusation that; 
a strange thing for the party who has a verdict rendered against him, 
to find fault that the jury took too long to deliberate. 

We made all the haste we could. The committee was at once di- 
vided into four parts, and certain States given to each to investigate^ 
so that the work could all go on at the same time. 

The first thing we wanted was certain documentary evidence on ■ 
file in the State Department, which we could not get any where 
else. 

We called for it, the Senate called for it, the House called for it, 
and repeated the call. It would have taken a clerk, perhaps, a week 
to furnish it. How long do you think it took the President and 
Mr. Seward to give the order and have it attended to ? It took nine 
weeks, and then there came a note from Mr. Seward, saying that his 
clerks had prepared the copies for his revision, and he had over- 
looked them ! Time is said to be money, if so, the President and 
the Secretary were quite flush just then. 

Without waiting, however, for what was needed as the first step- 
ping-stone in oar inquiries, we gave ourselves to the task of settling 
the very question I am now discussing, namely, whether in truth 
the condition of things in the southern States would warrant taking 
their representatives into full fellowship at once. 

We examined hundreds of witnesses, pushing the sittings into the 
nights. We called witnesses of every shade of opinion, refusing 
none that anybody wanted heard. Rebel and loyalist, civilian and 
soldier, officer and private, were all sought after, and members of the 
committee, of opposite politics, were present to examine and cross- 
examine. 

This testimony is pregnant throughout, and no man is warranted 
in calling names, or assuming to know more of this question than 
other people, unless he has read what the witnesses swore to. 

Here it is ; it fills 814 pages of type too fine for an old man 
to read. Besides this, there are two hundred and sixty pages of 
documentary evidence. 

How many, think you, have read it, of these gentlemen who have 
suddenly started up to take charge of the business of reconstruction ? 

How many of them have taken the trouble to read a page of it, or 
to study the question at all in its various bearings, before undertak- 
ing to pronounce upon one of the greatest and most difGicult problems 
in history ? 

But then after all, what are volumes of testimony, what are 
months of labor, compared to going to Philadelphia and seeing a 
man from Massachusetts and a man from South Carolina walk into 
a convention arm in arm ? 

Who wants to fool away his time in investigating, after he ha« 
been to Philadelphia and heard Lee and Stonewall Jackson cheered, 
and the loyal people of the North lectured and denounced by rebels, 
in reply to serenades where Dixie was played ? 



23 

Waiving the principle and the right of tlic thing, look at the 
result. 

The whole number of members of the House of Representatives 
is 242. If the oil! slave States arc to be allowed to courit their non- 
voting bhielvs. the next apportionment will give them ninety-four or 
ninety-six members. This lacks but twenty-six or twenty-eight of 
being a majority of all. In other words, twenty-six or twenty-eight 
votes from the Noi-th added to the southern vote, give them the 
House. Did you ever know the time when they couldn't get twenty- 
six votes from the North for anything they couldn't carry without? 

The last Congressional elections swept the North like a tornado. 
We had had two years before, something such a pretended "Con- 
servative " movement as is being ]-)almed olf now ; it wasn't so bare- 
faced as this, and being the first time, it carried before the people 
found it out; it came within an ace of losing us the Government, 
and the war, and it re-acted two years afterwards, so that true north- 
ern sentiment in the House of liepresentatives was stronger at the 
last session than it ever had been before, and yet forty or forty-one 
men were there to vote for the extremest southern views. 

When a report was made against paying for damages done by the 
war in southern States, every Democrat but six, I am Borrj to saj, 
voted against it. 

When a bill was passed to restore to Union men at the South the 
lands confiscated by the rebel government, every Democrat voted 
against it, and every Union man voted for it. 

Suits have been brought in the South against Union officers for 
property injured or destroyed in the war. Thirty-five hundred of 
these suits have been commenced in Kentucky alone. We passed a 
bill to allow these cases to be removed into the United States Courts, 
so as to get them before a more unbiased judge and jury, and everj 
Democrat voted against it. 

DO YOU WANT TO PAY THE REBEL DEBT, OR TO GIVE UP YOUR OWN? 

These instances will show you that the day is not past, when votes 
in Congress, from the North and from ihe South, hunt in couples 
after southern game. 

Do \'ou want to give up your interests once more to this alliance, 
with two-fifths added to the old slave power. Do you want to bind 
your country hand and foot, and lay it again on the altar at which 
it has been once offered up ? 

What would become of it? What would become of the pension 
roll of soldiers, and their widows and orphans? 

What would become of the public debt and the public credit? 
What would greenbacks, and five-twenties, and seven-thirties be 
worth ? 

The rebels who did the slight of hand at Philadelphia, said they 
would keep the United States securities good. I think they will 
too, because the Union people of the country are going to so fix it, 
that they can't make them bad. 

But suppose you let them take control, what will they do ? 

♦ 



24: 

Will they say to the North, you have beaten us in the battle, you 
have desolated our land with fire and sword, you have stripped us, 
you have annihilated four thousand million dollars by destroying 
slavery, you have compelled us to repudiate our debt, you have 
prevented our paying our creditors or soldiers ; we are poor, we 
are naked, but we are going now to keep voting taxes on ourselves 
to pay the debt you made in destroying us ? Will they say this ? 
Is it rational to expect it ? 

Public debts are not repudiated by direct afiirmative legislation. 
The want of legislation is enough to turn to blank paper every 

greenback in your pocket ; every government note or bond you 
old, 

A majority, or even less than a majority, in either House of Con- 
gress has only to fail to pass a certain bill, and bankruptcy, repudia- 
tion and ruin, would come like an unforetold eclipse. 

The rebel debt would not only go up in the market, as it did 
in England after the Philadelphia Convention, but the rebel debt 
and southern war damages, would become a stock to be bought up 
and lobbied through Congress. Men could make hundreds of 
thousands out of a single vote, and the most enormous corruption 
fund ever heard of in any country would be brought to bear upon 
the representatives of the people. 

Are you ready for this ? Are you ready to put up your rights, 
your property and the honor of the nation, to be raflEled for by the 
murderers of your children, and the betrayers of your country ? 

Are you ready after staggering through four j^ears of agony, to 
fool away and give away for nothing all you have struggled for, the 
moment you have it in your grasp ? 

Congress, and the committee of fifteen, thought not. They 
thought the graves should grow green, that the cripples should have 
time to limp back to their homes, that the inky cloak should begin 
to disappear before the authors of our woes come back into the pres- 
ence of their surviving victims ; and that when they do come, it 
shall be upon terms of equality with the rest of us, and with nothing 
more. 

THE WAY CONGRESS PROPOSES TO HAVE THE STATES REPRESENTED. 

Such being the view of the case, we submitted a Constitutional 
amendment, to be ratified by the rel3ellious States, as a condition of 
resuming their share in the government, and which, when ratified, 
will be the fourteenth amendment made to the Constitution of the 
United States. 

Our object was not to keep out southern representatives indefi- 
nitely, nor indeed for any considerable space of time, because the 
amendment can be ratified in season for the nest session of Congress. 
It could have been ratified now, and it would have been ratified by 
several of the southern States, but for the interference of the Presi- 
dent, and the expectation that through him they are to dictate their 
own terms. 

The sole purpose was to establish safeguards against mischief in 
fature, to enable the people to give the South all its rights, and at 



25 

the same time to preserve their own, and to incorporate provisions 
for the common welfare in the deed and covenant of the constitution, 
that being the only way to make them immutable. 

The proposed amendment provides four things. Il'ere is the first : 

"Section 1. All persons bom or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the 

i'urisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. 
^o State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities 
of citizens of the United States ; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, 
or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction 
the equal protection of the laws." 

This has no reference to the right to vote nor to any rights except 
those which belong to all human beings in this country. Children 
for example have every right here referred to, and the law of this 
country and of every civilized nation, is now exactly as it will be 
after this clause is ratified. It is merely declaratory, and its object 
13 to settle the law and to quiet controversy. 

So far as it touches the black race, it will have only the effect to 
make the negro more secure in the right to make contracts and col- 
lect his wages, and the like ; in short to take care of himself where 
climate and production offer a field for his labor. 

This is surely a wholesome thing, if only as economy to the na- 
tion. To rid ourselves of all trouble and expense for the negro, the 
cheapest way is to let him take care of himself To do this, he 
must have a chance where he belongs. He musn't be hunted from 
the South to come here, where he does not belong, nor kept a mend- 
icant and a vagrant to star^^e on the hands of the Government. 

Just here I want to enquire of my Democratic friends, where that 
darkening cloud of negroes is, with which emancipation was to 
cover the North? Where is that black wave of laborers from the 
South which was to roll in upon us, to crowd out white men, and 
reduce their wages. 

Four years ago mobs were raised, passions were roused, votes 
were given, upon the idea that emancipated negroes were to burst 
in hordes upon the North. We said then give them liberty and 
rights at the South, and they will stay there, and never come into a 
cold climate to die. We say so still, and we want them let alone, 
and that is one thing that this part of the amendment is for. 

With even the chance given them so far, and a hard chance it has 
been, they have done better than we are sometimes told. 

The Keconstruction Committee took testimony on that point too, 
and I wish every one of you would read it 

You would see among other things that more whites than blacks 
have been fed and clothed by the Freedmen's Bureau. In Tennes- 
see three to one. 

In Arkansas for this month of September, the number of whites 
assisted is 35,000, of blacks only 5,000. 

So bare-foced has become the pretence that the " Bureau of Re- 
fugees and Freedmen," has been for the sole benefit of lazy blacks, 
that the President is taking on his stumping tour a wholly differ- 
«nt tack. 

In the first place he approved of the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, and 



2C 

with his own hand altered it to suit him before it passed, then he ve- 
toed it upon a hue and cry that it was an unnecessary and lavish 
kindness to the negro, and now he comes out with the statement 
that the object of the bill was tore-enslave the black race, and that 
he couldn't sign it for that reason. This is like selling cheap arms 
and ammunition to the Fenians, and then turning in to hunt them 
down. 

The next clause relates to representation. 

"Section 2. Rapressntativas shall be apportionel among the ssvcral States according 
to their respective nunbers. countiag the whole number of persons in each State, ex- 
cluding Indians not taxed. Bat vvlie i the right to vote at any election for the choice of 
electors Tor President and Vice-President oi the United States, Representatives in Con- 
gress, the executive and judicial officers of a Stale, or the members of the legislature 
thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twentv-one°year3 of 
age, and citizens of the U.iifed States, or in any way abridge 1, except for participation in 
rebellion or other crune, the basis of representation therein shal'l be reduced in the 
proportion which the number of such male citizeis shall bear to the whole number of 
male citizens twenty-one years of age in. such State." 

Is not this fliir? It gives to every State the rights which tho 
State of New York enjoys. It leaves every State Iree to say who 
shall vote and who shall not. If the South,' or any particular State 
allows negroes to vote, so be it, we have nothing to say on the sub- 
ject. If it refuses to allow them to vote, so be it, we have nothing 
then to say. 

All we say is that if negroes are unfit to vote in the South, thej 
are unfit to govern us directly or indirectly. If they are unfit to 
help elect a hog reeve, or a pound master in a crocodile village in 
Florida, they are unfit to be represented in the halls of Congress, 
for the purpose of swelling sectional power in the hands of thoso 
hostile to the Government. 

We say to the South, give us the same treatment you give your- 
selves, that's all. Whenever the black race comes "up totlie point 
at which you are ready to say they are fit to participate' in governing 
you, we will abide by your decision, but you must not suppose that 
you are porcelain and we are clay, that's all. 

Can any man of self-respect, in the North, object to this? Even 
Mr. Senator Doolittle, who is one of the most anxious supporters 
of the President, hasn't yet been furnished with any ground of 
square opposition to this, but the President once made a remark 
about it, to Senator Dixon, in a conversation which he (the Presi- 
dent,) sent on Sunday to the newspapers to be published, and Mr. 
Doolittle is still traveling on this. What do you think the President's 
idea was ? 

To base representation simply upon "qualified votes!" What 
sagacity an<l statesmanship there is — " qualified votes." That meana 
whoever a State pleases to let vote. 

Suppose Vermont should let women vote, she would thereby more 
than double her representation. 

Suppose Massachusetts should let children vote, and men and 
women too, she would more than treble her representation. 

New York would lose under her laws all her unnaturalized 



•29 

ander 11. Stephens' invention ; he has the copyright, and the Philadel- 
phia address is only a feeble imitation. He testified before the Re- 
construction Committee that Georgia was willing to leave the basis of 
representation where it was, that in his view and that of the people 
he represented, the southern States had a right all through the war 
to come into Congress at their pleasure, that Congress had no right 
to propose amendments to the constitution, as had been done as to 
abolishing slavery, and that the amendment abolishing slavery was 
void, and slavery existed still. 

This is logical at least, and is more respectable coming from 
Stephens, than the rant and fustian of Andrew Jolmson, certainly. 

But the idea of South Carolina being humiliated by agreeing to 
hold the same rights in this Union that New York holds, is the 
grimmest joke of the war; it puts Andrew Johnson clear ahead of 
Artemus Ward or Petroleum Nasby. 

Equality with New York humiliating to a State which in the rev- 
olution put herself up to be raffled for by the British against our 
fathers, and to be taxed without representation forever, in case the 
British won ! 

"taxation without eepresentatiok" 

But we are told that " taxation without representation " is wrong. 
To be sure it is, but what has that to do with the matter before us ? 

Who, in the first place deprived rebels of representation ? Who 
prevents their resuming it at any moment ? 

It is wrong to deny a man shelter, but if he is in your house and 
goes out in the cold, and stays out in the cold, and sets the house on 
fire, and murders your children, and when the fire is out you invite 
him to come in again and be forgiven, and he refuses to come in un- 
less he can be allowed to endanger all that he hasn't already destroyed, 
you do enough for that man when you leave out the latch-string 
and tell him he can come in whenever he will be civil. Rebels must 
not be taxed without being represented before the blood has dried ! 
You might as well raise hue and cry about the men in the State 
prisons, who are taxed, and yet not alio rt^cd to go to Philadelphia to 
be serenaded and presented with ballots and bouquets. 

But speaking of "taxation without representation," what about 
four million blacks to whom the New York World gives the credit 
of overthrowing the rebellion? 

They fought and worked for us, they guided, nursed and fed our 
soldiers, not one ever turned traitor, they alone celebrate the Fourth 
of July, and decorate soldiers' graves, they are taxed, they are free, 
but no representation is proposed for them by the conservative phi- 
losophers. It is even proposed to allow theiv old masters to count 
them in, to get more power to oppress and degrade them, and to lord 
it over us. How is this ? 

What about the people in the Territories, taxed without represen- 
tation? Andrew Johnson vetoed bills admitting Colorado and Ne- 
braska to Statehood and representation ; but we don't hear anything 
of that, though these are loyal people. 



30 

If we are not to have our rights equalized and fixed before letting 
in southern Representatives, wlien are we to do it? 

Will they vote to reduce their unfair representation, after we 
have voted to allow it to them? We shall vote to allow it to them, 
if we vote for the admission of their Ke})resentatives as matters now 
stand, and if after that, we ask southern States to ratify any amend- 
ment of the constitution stripping themselves of powei-, we shall ask 
in vain. 

If it be asked how they can ratify amendments if they are not fit 
to be represented, I answer jii^t as they ratified the anti-slaverj 
amendment and accepted conditions prescribed by the '"one man 
power," at the time when according to that one man, "all civil gov- 
ernment" was extinct. 

MAGNANIMITY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 

This, then, is the conclusion of the whole matter : The insurgent 
communities have forfeited every th;ng, from life to property, to 
offended justice. The American peo])le have iurgiven them all. 
Requiring no indemnity ior the past, they ask only security for the 
future. 

The maxims of universal justice wnri'ant more than this; the 
plainest principles of public law, as all Christendom understands it, 
affirm the right to demand more; and the constitution and welfare 
of the nation will not be satisfied with less. We search in vain the 
pages of history for an example of such foi'bearance and magna- 
nimity. Where can it be found? 

Look for a parallel at the recent outbreak in Jamaica. A paltry- 
riot rises in an island colony, and its authors are j»unished with a ter- 
rible severity of milltaiy and judicial slaughter, which sends a 
shudder round the world. Allies of road cncumV)ered with c<)r]')se3 
— a ghastly winrow of examples that in British law treason is odious 
and ti'aitors must be punished. 

The case is not exceptional. The rule is that, while the masses 
are ])ardoned, the leaders of rebellion are visited by the last pen- 
alties of the law. 

Ours is the exceptional, the solitary case, of a people repaying 
treason with nothing but forgiveness and equality. 

ANDEEW JOHNSON TRAMPLING ON HIMSELF. 

That the criminals themselves, encouraged and incited as thej 
have been, should have the ingratitude to |)Ut on airs, ought not, 
perhajis, to be wondered at. ^Vhat, however, must be the brazen 
effrontery which enables Andi-ew Johnson to repeat from place to 
place his gross and senseless tirades, in the face of what he himself 
lias said? Look at his declai'ations, made while he was keeping up 
the appcarance,or being true to his duty, Ilis attorney of recoril, 
Mr. Senator Doolittle, is trying to explain away the language of ven- 
geance toward rebels which Andi'cw Johnson used to utter, by say- 
ing that it was while the war was raging, and he was excited. 

At Nashville, June 9, 18(34, after much violent language, he said. 



'Ur€a<!on must he made odiovs, and traitors mvst hepvvislird and impov- 
eriihed. Their r/reat plantations must be seized, and diuided into small 
farms, and sold to honest, industrious men." He then procceilcd to at- 
tack the odicers of tlie Union army, for being dishonestly lenient 
and jartial to ''the rich traitor." 

'J'his si)eech, it is true, was made while the war continued, if that 
makes any dillerence as to its truth or justice. But he reaflirmed it 
all when the war was over, and when lie had felt, in his own case, 
the value of magnanimity and forgiveness, because the American 
people had just forgiven him for reeling into their presence, and into 
the presence of the embassadors of foreign countries, on inauguration 
day, and making an exhibition at which the nation hung its head in 
shame. 

He realTirmed it all after he became President, and at the time, too, 
when there was some real penitence among rebels. 

On the twenty-first of Ain-il, 1865, he said, in a speech to a dele- 
gation from Ir.diana, headed by Governor Morton : ''Jt is not pro- 
muftjatinff anytJiing 1 have not heretofore said, to say that traitors must be 
made odious, that treason must be made odious, that traitors must bej'un- 
isJu'd and impoverished." 

On the twenty -fourth of April, 1865, he made a speech to 
refugees from Virginia, in which he repeated and reiterated all these 
things. 

Now "the rich traitor" is courted and caressed, and the poor 
Unionist is butchered by the connivance of Andrew Johnson. 

Alter Missouri has passed laws to preveTit rebels from voting, and 
after the courts have sustairied those laws, this frenzied usurper 
dares to tell a deputation ol'traitors that everything that can be done 
from Washington by miiitaiy force, will be done to insure rebels the 
opportunity to vote in Missouri, the laws of the State to the contrary 
notwithstanding. 

Not satisfied with betraying the country by official action and by 
secret plotting, not satisfied with conniving at the robbery and mur- 
der of Unionists, and the exaltation and reward of traitors at the 
South, he comes now to buffet and slander the Union people of the 
North, and to blacken the mem(^ry of their dead. 

Let the peoj)le ot the Noi-th sanction or submit to it, and through- 
out the South the worst impulse will be given to the public mind, and 
the worst results for the whole country will follow, Aln^ady a revo- 
lution and a dictatorship loom in the distance. But let the 
elections speak out in favor of the mild and safe plan of restoration 
proposed by Congress, and, seeing the folly of continuing resistance, 
eouthern men of all classes will accei)t the terms proposeil. 'J'hen we 
shall have a Union not only of States and of people, but of interests, 
of rights and of hearts, and the nation will enter upon a career of 
prosperity untold in history or fable. 



Roberts, Priuter, Morning Ilerald Establishment, Utica. 



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